Free Running Buildings targets the first cost-effective high-performance passive ventilation system with heat recovery, enabling a radical reduction in the energy, CO2 and cost of achieving legislative requirements for indoor-air-quality.
Adequately ventilating buildings requires fully refreshing the inside-air every 6-10 minutes. To address the huge energy/cost-demands of existing air-conditioning or mechanical ventilators, adoption of wind-tower-based passive ventilation is growing. However, the requirement to constantly/rapidly raise the inlet air temperature in colder weather stimulates a significant space-heating requirement in many markets, which restricts the zero-energy operating window and economic-viability of this approach.
Free Running Buildings aim to find a practical and retrofittable PVHR technology for year-round operation by further developing their core technologies for wind-driven natural ventilation and heat-exchange, targeting a 5-degree-Celsius thermal gain using heat pipes both to capture exhaust energy and pre-heat inlet air:
FREEHEAT. Working with the University of Hull’s Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) experts, and leveraging advances in metallic foams to realise a step-change in passive heat-recovery-efficiency and system weight, integrating this technology into their proprietary modular/flat-pack assembly catalyses new retrofit capability.
Seeking to remove all moving parts in thermal recovery, Free Running Buildings approach adopts a bank of highly conductive vertical heat pipes to mediate heat-exchange, using aluminium foams for both the inlet/outlet thermal transfer and building on core aerodynamic IP, the project partners will develop heat-pipe array configurations using computational-fluid-dynamic simulations to reconcile design-conflicts.


The international credit rating agency Fitch maintained the ” B+ ‘’ rating assigned to the Republic of Benin, ‘‘with a stable outlook ’’. According to the communiqué of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, of 10 October 2022, this decision attests to the resilience of the country in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as the quality of its economic fundamentals, despite a deteriorated overall macroeconomic context.
Benin continues to make a name for itself in the area of economic governance. The international credit rating agency Fitch welcomed the growth prospects of the Beninese economy, in a sound fiscal framework marked by moderate debt and a controlled deficit. The international credit rating agency acknowledges the dynamism of the Beninese economy and its marked rebound in 2021, at 7.2%, followed by growth of 5.5% in 2022. The agency highlights the resilience of the economy despite external shocks and forecasts an average growth of 6% over 2023-2024, supported by the Government’s Action Programme. Fitch also highlights Benin’s moderate exposure to current inflationary pressures, due to the quality of harvests and support measures introduced by the government to limit the impact of rising prices on the population. The level of inflation thus remained contained in 2022, standing at 1.3% between January and August. The agency also welcomes the innovative program concluded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which helps to cover the government’s financing needs and supports the return to a fiscal consolidation trajectory, anticipated as early as 2022. The agency anticipates a gradual increase in government revenues, driven by the ongoing reform agenda and strong economic growth. The budgetary balance should thus converge in 2024 towards the Community standard of -3.0%. Finally, Fitch acknowledges the level of public debt contained in Benin, which the agency estimates at 49.8% of GDP in 2021, a level lower than countries with equivalent ratings, and significantly lower than the WAEMU Community standard. The international financial rating agency also expects a decrease in Benin’s public debt ratio from 2024, driven by Benin’s fiscal performance and the dynamism of growth, according to the press release of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.


On Monday, November 15, Frank Sode (Frankfurt University) will give a guest lecture (remotely) on “Desire reports and conditionals” in Magdalena Kaufmann’s semantics seminar (1:30pm–4:30pm). — Everyone is welcome, please contact Magdalena Kaufmann for the link if you would like to participate but don’t have access via HuskyCT.
The Meaning Group will meet on Thursday, November 11, 11:00am – noon (online). Yusuke Yagi and Xuetong Yuan will present on-going work on concessive conditionals in Japanese and Mandarin.
For online participation consult email announcements or contact Magdalena Kaufmann.
The UConn Logic Colloquium will feature Sarah Murray (Linguistics, Cornell) on Friday, November 5, 2:30-4:00pm. The talk will be held online. For login information, watch the email announcements or contact Stefan Kaufmann.
The Logic of Speech Acts: Sentential Force vs Utterance Force
Across languages, sentences are marked for sentence type, or sentential mood, e.g., declarative and interrogative. These sentence types are associated with speech acts: assertions and questions, respectively. However, sentential mood does not determine the force of an utterance of a sentence. We argue that the semantic contribution of sentential mood is a relation that constrains utterance force. This relation takes a proposition as an argument and uses it to affect a component of the context. The semantic constraint together with additional pragmatic factors produce utterance force.
This logic for speech acts involves a semantics for the three main sentence types found cross-linguistically (declarative, interrogative, imperative) as well as a distinction between speaker commitment and discourse reference. In addition to a semantics for sentential mood, this approach provides a framework for a range of phenomena, including evidentials, parentheticals, hedges, and “speech act modifiers”. We conclude by discussing the Linguistic Modification Thesis, the idea that linguistic material can only influence utterance force by influencing sentential force.
This talk is based on joint work with William Starr


Squirrels are typically active whenever you see them. You may see them scurrying back and forth in your yard eating something. However, during cooler seasons, you may find their behavior strange. You may start seeing them burying their nuts and other foods. This is their way of stacking up food for the winter season.
Do squirrels hibernate?
Most squirrels don’t hibernate except for ground squirrels. Before the cold weather comes, the majority of them essentially store food and remain in their nests until the winter is over. They stash their foods in various spots around their nests to ensure they have enough food when the winter season comes.
If they’re not hibernating, you could be wondering how they can survive and what they’re doing during the winter season. See the given details below.
Squirrels During Winter
During sunny days, you might notice the squirrels’ frantic movements. They’re busy roaming around places searching, eating, and collecting foods, especially nuts and seeds.
What Do Squirrels Do During Winter? Squirrels love to hoard up whatever food they find and bury them away for rainy and cold seasons.They bury their foods in different places around their nest and get them back once foods are scarce during the cold season. With this being said, they can typically survive the winter seasons with their stashed foods. Most squirrels begin to fatten themselves during the cool weather of fall.This ‘fattening up’ serves as extra energy to warm themselves during winter, which others mistakenly take as hibernation. Ground squirrels like the Arctic squirrels of Alaska spend all the winter months hibernating. Hibernation in a Nutshell What Is Hibernation? Hibernation refers to the long-term dormancy or inactivity of an animal, particularly during the winter seasons. However, not all animals go under hibernation, like the case of most squirrels.
During hibernation, animals lower their body temperatures and slow their heart rates and metabolisms. This typically happens every winter when food supplies are scarce.
Hibernation of Animals Every Winter Season Some animals like bears hibernate every winter season due to food scarcity and wake up when a substantial food supply is available. Apart from bears, the following animals are also considered to be hibernators: Woodchuck Little brown bat Jumping mouse Eastern chipmunk Poorwill bird (resides in western North America)
It is believed that hibernators have a compound in their blood known as Hibernation Induction Triggers (HIT). HIT serves as a trigger sign that let them know when it’s time to prepare for hibernation.
This is why animals that undergo hibernation often know when to fatten themselves to prepare for winter. So, when the winter season arrives, they’ll have enough body fats to keep them warm and energized.
On the other hand, some animals store extra foods as early as summer for their winter consumption. This case is typically similar to squirrels that stash their food in their hideouts and other places near their dens.
Where Do Squirrels Live In the Winter? Squirrels are builders. They build themselves shelters from branches and twigs in the limb or hole of a tree. If given a chance, they can even construct their nests in the attic or barn.
During the winter, they make sure their nests are snug and warm. They prefer to nest alone, except when they already have young squirrels of their own. However, if the weather gets too intense, they nestle together in a den to keep themselves warmer.
Since squirrels typically stay in the den for too long, some people assume that they’re hibernating. Although they give too much time to plan and make their dens before the winter comes, they never hibernate in them.
Things Squirrels Do Before Winter Season Before the winter season, squirrels are busy scavenging, eating, and storing foods. You may have seen them from time to time, frantically scurrying from one place to another. However, these are not only the things they’re doing during good weather conditions.
Squirrels are pretty clever animals and do things that are beneficial to them during the winter months. Below are some things squirrels do before the winter season to help them cope with the incoming inclement weather.
Nest Building
Squirrels love to stay warm even during cold, frosty months. Thus, they ensure to have a comfortable and warm den to stay in during the cold months.
They start building their nests in tall trees with leaves, twigs, and moss. How Do Squirrels Build a Nest? First, squirrels build their nests by weaving green twigs.After that, they add moss and leaves on top of the weaved green twigs. Then, around the insulated core, vines and the external skeleton of twigs are built. Other squirrels build their nests in more favorable locations.These spots they’ve chosen have built-in support found in tree cavities, a tangle of grapevines, or in the juncture of emerging tree trunk branches. Squirrels usually build more than one nest in cavity dens.This is to protect them from harsh weather better and avoid predators in the process. Collecting Food Supplies
As stated above, squirrels are clever animals. They do things that are helpful to them in the long run. Tree squirrels, in particular, are surprisingly ingenious.
Hoarding Food Supplies Squirrels collect and hoard their food supplies for winter in different places around their nests. They also often pretend to bury food in one place, but in reality, bury it in other areas to outsmart their rivals. This way, their foods are safe and ready for the cold months to come.
They often hoard the following foods as their supplies for inclement weather, where foods are often scarce:
Several types of berries Various types of nuts Seeds Insects, and more
Though they buried their supplies in various places, they can still point where they buried them. Squirrels have a heightened sense of smell, which they can use in tracking their caches and more.
Fatten Themselves
At the start of the cold weather during fall, you might notice many squirrel activities. This is the time where they start to fatten themselves to prepare for the winter season.
Why do they do this?
Squirrels particularly fatten themselves as the winter approaches to store enough fats. When food is limited, the stored fat can be converted to energy, which can help the squirrels to survive.
The fats also help in warming up their bodies, preventing their temperatures from dropping drastically. With their energy and body heat, they can continue to scamper in the cold season to go and get their well-hidden food supplies.
Why Can’t Squirrels Be Seen During Winter if They Don’t Hibernate? Most squirrels are active during the daytime and rise early to do their scavenging routine. However, they’re typically idle and choose to stay in their nests as long as possible during winter. They only go out when it’s time to get their food supply from their hoarding place.
If you want to see squirrels during winter, you may try the following:
Look into tree hollows, where squirrels can typically be seen.The hollows give them much comfort and security against severe weather and possible predators. Scan the limbs of trees for volumes of leaves and twigs, where you may spot a squirrel family.Nonetheless, as long as the temperature stays above freezing point, you can still spot some squirrels coming up and down from trees.
As long as the snow doesn’t start falling heavily, you might still see some squirrels recovering their dispersed food supplies.
Each Squirrel Is Different During Winter Season
Because each squirrel species is unique, they all have distinct habits, whether hibernating or resting in the winter.
There are around 200 species of squirrels. However, this section will focus on the most common ones.
Ground Squirrels Ground squirrels are squirrels that hibernate throughout the winter. They hibernate for around eight months to survive the harsh, stormy weather during the winter months.
Their hibernation will begin at the end of July. They won’t come out of hibernation until late in the spring (around March).
Gray Squirrels Gray squirrels do not hibernate. Instead, they are relying on fat reserves and mast stockpiles to get through the long, harsh winters. They can be spotted outside during the winter months if the weather is not too cold (below 30 degrees F) or not raining or snowing. Red Squirrels In terms of winter preparation and behavior, red squirrels and gray squirrels are similar. They do not hibernate. In preparation for the incoming winter season, they are also collecting and storing food.
The distinction between red and gray squirrels is that red squirrels prefer to build their nests in thick evergreen trees. They like to construct nests in tree cavities for improved security.
Summary
Hibernation is an animal’s inactivity, especially during the winter seasons. But not all animals exhibit this behavior. Except for ground squirrels, most squirrels do not hibernate.
However, there are still things the squirrel must do before the winter season to help them deal with the incoming inclement weather – nest building, collecting food supplies, and fattening themselves.
Even though squirrels do not hibernate, we typically do not see them throughout the winter. This is because most squirrels are active throughout the day and get up early to scavenge. They only leave their home when it is time to collect their food supply from their hoarding location.
List of Sources
Frohn, J. (2018). The Year of the Gray Squirrel. University of New Hampshire.
Gray and Red Squirrels in Massachusetts. Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Living with wildlife: Tree squirrels. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.


Rodrigo Canales does research at the intersection of organizational theory and institutional theory, with a special interest in the role of institutions for economic development. Rodrigo studies how individuals can purposefully change complex organizations or systems. Rodrigo’s work explores how individuals’ backgrounds, professional identities, and organizational positions affect how they relate to existing structures and the strategies they pursue to change them. His work contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that allow institutions to operate and change. Rodrigo has done work in entrepreneurial finance and microfinance, as well as in the institutional implications of the Mexican war on drugs. His current research is divided into three streams. The first focuses on the structural determinants of the quality of startup employment. The second explores the conditions under which development policies and practices integrate rigorous evidence. The third, with generous support from the Merida Initiative, explores how to build effective, resilient, and trusted police organizations in Mexico.
Rodrigo teaches the Innovator Perspective at Yale SOM; he sits in the advisory board of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT; he spent the 2014-2015 academic year advising the Mexican government on the US-Mexico bilateral relationship; and sits in the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy.
Vanessa Cardenas- Senior Strategist and Public Affairs Consultant, Cardenas Strategies Inc.
Vanessa Cárdenas is a seasoned political strategist and policy expert on issues related to political disinformation, climate change, immigration, political communication, and women’s political empowerment. She is currently Deputy Director at America’s Voice.
Vanessa has worked with some of the most renowned progressive organizations in the country. She was the National Coalitions Director at the Biden for President campaign during the 2020 primary where she oversaw its constituency work. Prior to this, she held various roles at EMILY’s List, a political action committee (PAC) that helps elect pro-choice Democratic women. She also led “Climático” at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) where she supported efforts towards a global climate agreement. Vanessa also served in a myriad of roles at the Center for American Progress (CAP) including Director for Ethnic Media and later Vice President for Progress 2050, a project focused on the implications of demographic change. Vanessa’s first job in DC was with the National Immigration Forum where she joined local and national allies in the struggle for a fair and just immigration system.
Alberto Fierro Garza – Consul General of Mexico in Boston
A Mexican career diplomat since 1993, Alberto Fierro previously was the head of the Cultural Institute of the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. He was the Consul of Mexico in Orlando, FL and in St. Paul, MN. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as Director General for Educational and Cultural Cooperation and as Deputy Director General for North America.
Alberto was Director General for International Affairs at the National Council for Culture and the Arts of Mexico. He also served as Director of the Social Promotion Department at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from that university and a Masters in Latin-American History from Georgetown University. He lives with his husband David, his companion for more than 26 years.


Harm reduction strategies and tools should be accessible to everyone – regardless of location, time, and/or experience.
Resources and Tools Case Study Toolkit Toolkit Publication/Report Toolkit Publication/Report Companion Guide Publication/Report Publication/Report
Articles in this supplement focus on the global opioid crisis, including coverage of harm reduction approaches, health justice promotion, and lessons learned.
A recent study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence found evidence for racial/ethnic disparities in buprenorphine distribution across the United States.


You’ll often hear people use the terms “cost optimization” and “cost cutting” interchangeably. You might even be guilty of this yourself.Continue reading
79% of companies with effective supply chains were able to achieve high-level revenue growth. In contrast, companies with poorly developed supply chains were only able to obtain above-average growth 8% of the time.Continue reading
Enterprise Application Software, or EAS, has practically become a household term in recent years, but is often not particularly well-defined, delineated, or understood across the business landscape.Continue reading


Rowland Atkinson
APA Atkinson, R. (1). Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces. Urban Studies, 40(9), 1829–1843. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0042098032000106627 Abstract This paper explores some of the more extreme tendencies in the management of public space to consider whether current policy directions, in this case in central Scotland, are driven by a desire to empower or control users of such spaces. The title of the paper is taken from the theoretical lenses provided by Neil Smith and Sharon Zukin in their differential views on trends in the management and control of public spaces. The paper focuses on two local case studies to examine the possibility that a ‘revanchist’ element is emerging in policies towards public spaces in Britain. The paper concludes that programmes designed to deal with urban and public space are a reaction to both real and perceived problems. However, there has been a privileging of a policy discourse which celebrates the displacement of social problems rather their resolution. It is argued that such a discourse cannot ultimately provide sustainable policies for the regulation of public spaces and threatens the inclusion of some users of public spaces who may not be considered to be legitimate patrons. While this does more to foster fearful than inclusive public spaces, a thorny question remains over whether some degree of exclusion is a necessary price for policies which seek to secure public space and maintain a wider quality of life.
Main finding After reviewing two "extreme case" policies (a youth curfew and zero-tolerance policing), enacted in Scotland, to determine if a revanchist urban agenda was at hand, the author found connections between desires for a sanitized public realm and economic motives to secure the future of cities, like Glasgow, as places that would attract investment with the removal of social problems. However, it is difficult to answer, unequivocally, if there is a revanchist trend in British policies dealing with urban space. If it is recognized that these policies are intended, in many ways, to safeguard the public - exactly who the public is proves hard to define. Furthermore, devolution of decision-making and localized discretionary powers produce differing and variable concerns regarding public space at the urban scale which are also complicated by the desires of freely moving capital, welfare restructuring, and notions of open access to all. It should be noted that it's an exploratory analysis, yet the author has identified threads of revanchism in both the curfew program and policing strategies that beg further examination of the policies. These threads are categorized as: modes of governance, programming, dystopian imagery, and references to economic objectives. The overarching issue is that these policies (and others like it) tend to focus on the symptoms and not the underlying structural reasons for inequality and social problems. Description of method used in the article The author selected "extreme cases" of policies to examine whether elements of a revanchist urbanism agenda were present in policies affecting public space in Britain. The two policies selected are a-typical and have a specific geographical and social target - they are 1) The Hamiliton Child Safety Initiative' youth curfew and 2) Zero-tolerance policing that cracks down on minor offenses to prevent major ones. Verdict Of practical use


News & Blog TRPV1-Targeted Gene Therapy: Novel Treatment for IC/BPS? Majima T, Funahashi Y, Takai S, Goins WF, Gotoh M, Tyagi P, Glorioso JC, Yoshimura N. Herpes Simplex Virus Vector-Mediated Gene Delivery of Poreless TRPV1 Channels Reduces Bladder Overactivity and Nociception in Rats. Hum Gene Ther. 2015 Aug 31. [Epub ahead of print]
This animal study demonstrates the potential for using a specific type of gene therapy to treat bladder overactivity and pain. The investigators induced a form of cystitis in female rats, and then injected them with a gene therapy that targets a receptor known as TRPV1. For comparison purposes, they injected a second set of rats with a placebo treatment. They found that the rats receiving the active gene therapy had a response suggesting a therapeutic effect on bladder overactivity and pain behavior. While the findings are very preliminary, they do suggest that gene therapy targeting TRPV1 could be an innovative treatment for overactive bladder, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, and other bladder disorders.


An overview of how foundations and their grantees can participate in advocacy developed by members of the Forum District to D.C. Advocacy Network.
Corporate Giving
The annual Giving in Numbers infographic offers the very first look at the latest trends that are defining the strategies behind corporate social investments.
This report published in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia provides a snapshot of how the business community of Philadelphia engages in philanthropy and the scale and scope of those philanthropic activities.
In the latest edition of its research of corporate social investment has found that leading corporations are intensifying efforts to meet key societal needs around the world. It is based on data from 252 companies and not only presents a profile of corporate philanthropy and employee engagement, but also includes a Trends Summary that highlights the prominent features of corporate societal investment.
CSR executives have difficult jobs. They are expected to be strategic, aligned with business priorities, and focused on results. Yet success often requires navigating ever-changing expectations and a maze of competing priorities. This strategy toolkit, developed by FSG in partnership with CECP, identifies three tools for clarifying your strategy and transforming your portfolio.
D5’s Final State of the Work highlights voices of leaders in the field who share their stories of change and progress. This final report catalogs the stories that tell of human impact and human struggle to create a more equitable philanthropy.
Nonprofits can and should play an active role during elections, particularly by educating and activating voters. However, with important local, state and federal elections coming up this fall, nonprofits should take the time to remind their staff about appropriate activity during a political campaign or at any other time.
This report from Pantheon profiles 8 Amazing Drupal Launches, including the Forum's Salesforce-Drupal Platform.
In November 2013, the Forum’s Val Rozansky, along with Kim Snipes from Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers and Bill Corkill from Council of Michigan Foundations, presented on the Drupal-Salesforce platform at Dreamforce, the Salesforce users conference.


The plant Tarchonanthus camphoratus belongs to Asteraceae family. Its common name is wild sage or camphor bush. This study was aimed at isolating bioactive phenypropanoid esters and sesquiterpene lactones from the leaves of this plant. A powdered sample of the leaves weighing 500 g was sequentially extracted with of hexane (1.5 L), dichloromethane (1.5 L) and methanol (3 x 1.5 L). The methanolic extract was partitioned between equal volumes (250 ml each) of distilled water. The n-butanol fraction was concentrated under reduced pressure followed by addition of diethyl ether, precipitating 20 g of a dry crude extract. The extract was successively fractionated using hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, acetone, ethanol and methanol yielding 1.6 g, 1.4 g, 1.6 g, 7.0 g, and 1.4 g, 2 g and 4 g respectively of samples soluble in each solvent. Phytochemical and chemical tests were employed in identifying the fractions that contained phenolic compounds and terpenoids. Antimicrobial activity tests of the extracts soluble in various solvents were then performed on Escharichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginos, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhi, Candida albicans and Bacillus spp. Ethyl acetate and methanol soluble fractions were found to contain phenolics, while hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions contained terpenoids. Ethyl acetate fraction was active against E. coli, P. mirabilis, K. pneumoniae, S. typhi, and Bacillus spp while methanol fraction was active against E. coli, K. pneumoniae, S. typhi, and Bacillus spp. The two fractions were combined and subjected to TLC analysis, Column chromatography, HPLC analysis and sephadex LH-20 reversed phase column chromatography, affording three isomers of dicaffeoyl quinic acids: 4, 5- dicaffeoyl quinic acid, 1 (135 mg), 3, 5-dicaffeoyl quinic acid, 2 (125 mg), and 3, 4-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3 (90 mg) which are known compounds, and a sesquiterpene lactone, 4 (150 mg). Structural elucidation of the compounds was done using IR, MS, 13C- NMR, 1H- NMR, DEPT, 1H-1H COSY, 1H-13C COSY and HMBC techniques.


AI/ML
VA is turning to data standards to improve health care as more veterans use personal health monitoring devices.
The Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Office will focus on enabling AI at the combatant command-level in 2023.
AI and edge computing could help service members in combat zones endure through difficult circumstances.
AI, zero trust and software modernization highlight an unclassified version of the Defense Department's defense strategy.
Researchers at NIH, DOE and the Census Bureau developed new methods for securely sharing sensitive data.
Responsible, resilient and robust AI is an absolute necessity for the Air Force to compete and win on the global stage.
ICE is automating and integrating its security processes to stay on top of threats.
Zero trust and a strong cybersecurity culture will help the Department of the Navy prepare its data for AI.
Reducing technical debt, ensuring zero trust cybersecurity across all connected systems, and developing a strong data foundation will be critical for winning future conflicts.
Brian Kelley explains how he’s leveraging new models to secure 5G networks.
Leaders are focused on changing mindsets instead of buying specific tools for zero trust.
The Defense Department faces an uphill battle as they continue to tackle cultural and trust challenges while moving toward the adoption and implementation of AI.
A software factory named for the legendary UFO repository proves innovation is 'everlong' at the Air Force.
AI will be a critical component of JADC2, AI leaders said at the NDIA's JADC2 Symposium this week.
The department is enhancing the way it shares data, best practices and use cases.


Abstract
Small- and intermediate-conductance Ca
2+-activated K + channels, K Ca2.3 and K Ca3.1, are involved in cellular signaling processes associated with inflammation and fibrosis. K Ca2.3 and K Ca3.1 are upregulated by proinflammatory cytokines and profibrotic growth factors. Cyclic AMP, which downregulates K Ca2.3 and K Ca3.1, is elevated by modafinil in cells; accordingly, we investigated whether modafinil exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic responses via K Ca2.3- and K Ca3.1-mediated pathways in high-fat diet (HFD)- or thioacetamide-induced liver disease models in mice. Modafinil was administered orally in the form of a racemate, (R)-isomer, or (S)-isomer. We also determined whether the treatment targeted the profibrotic activity of hepatic stellate cells using immortalized human hepatic stellate cells (LX-2 cells). Modafinil improved HFD- or thioacetamide-induced changes compared to the control, leading to a reduced inflammatory response, collagen deposition, and α-smooth muscle actin expression both in vivo and in vitro. However, modafinil did not relieve HFD-induced steatosis. There were no significant differences in the effects of the (R)- and (S)-isomers of modafinil. K Ca2.3 and K Ca3.1 were upregulated and catalase was downregulated in liver tissues from thioacetamide- or HFD-induced liver disease models or in TGF-β-treated LX-2 cells. TGF-β-induced upregulation of K Ca2.3, K Ca3.1, collagen, and α-smooth muscle actin and downregulation of catalase were reversed by modafinil, polyethylene glycol catalase, N-acetylcysteine, siRNA against K Ca2.3 or K Ca3.1, and Epac inhibitors. Our investigation revealed that modafinil attenuated inflammatory and fibrotic progression via K Ca2.3- and K Ca3.1-mediated pathways in nonalcoholic hepatitis, suggesting that inhibiting K Ca2.3- and K Ca3.1-mediated signaling may serve as a novel therapeutic approach for inflammatory and fibrotic liver diseases. Keywords Fibrosis Inflammation K2.3 and K3.1 Liver disease Modafinil


Shared CFO Services And How It Can Take Away The Pain Points Of Any Start-up
For this very reason, the role of a Chief Financial Officer is of prime importance for any start-up. On a strategic level, if one has closed a round of funding, has a significant amount of expensesand revenue to manage, the need for a CFO is heightened. His role is also important to manage block-and-tackle accounting, and bookkeeping. Despite this, one of the most common mistakes a start-up makes is not hiring a CFO, largely owing to the cost factor involved. To address this, the concept of a shared CFO has emerged, to enable start-ups to enjoy the services of a CFO, at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, a shared CFO can also address some of the pressing tasks a start-up has to deal with, including accounting and business strategy, and financial modelling. As they typically work on a project basis, they are also equipped to handle tasks that the in-house staff is not equipped to handle, and leave them free to focus on core areas of the business. Here’s how a shared CFO can benefit a start-up.
Improvements in cash flow
One of the key functions of a start-up lies in monitoring cash flow, which is essential for both the founders as well as investors. A shared CFO understands this, and is crucial in assisting in analysing the business
Allows founders to focus on their core competency
A shared CFO can be roped in to forecast the future of the start-up, from a financial point of view. He provides strategic recommendations, and contributes to the growth of a start-up, by working towards the financial growth for the next few years. Additionally, the CFO also handles compliance and reporting, thereby increasing the founder’s bandwidth to focus on their core competencies.
Single point contact for ease of operations
Resource consolidation is an ideal way for a start-up to implement best practices. The same can be applied to the role of a shared CFO, who with his expertise, is in the best position to liaise with government agencies, vendors, investors, and bankers. By establishing a single point contact, start-ups are able to address financial issues with ease, resulting in smoother operations.
Identifies opportunities for cost cutting
Running a business tends to be an expensive affair. However, it is critical to limit expenses, if one’s business is to grow. A shared CFO helps by identifying areas where expenses can be cut out or reduced. It is particularly easier for a shared CFO to make these decisions as they are an external employee, and bring in objectivity to operations.
Growth strategy
Contrary to popular belief, it is not just the founder who is responsible for ensuring growth of a start-up. A shared CFO can provide value inputs for the same, through the right financial planning and strategy. Through the use of customer analysis, he is able to work out metrics on which to base the growth plan. Through this data analysis, it would be safe to say that the CFO is at the heart of business strategy. He is also able to engage with teams across the floor, to use his financial predictions to improve and implement best practises for increased growth.
Vast spectrum of industry experience
A shared CFO is one who belongs to a CFO company, or a team. Hence, through knowledge sharing by his team, he is able to gain insights into multiple industries, and apply this to the start-up he is overseeing. By employing the services of a shared CFO, a start-up can leverage his goodwill to not only gain valuable market insights, but also build contacts from across industries for mutual growth.
As seen, a shared CFO can address several of the challenges faced by start-ups. By employing their services, start-ups can now look forward to improved financial stability, and strategy. They have cemented their importance among the burgeoning start-up market in India, and we will definitely see their role grow in the years to come, making them a valuable investment for any fledgling business.
Entrust Family Office, a boutique investment advisory company, offers CFO services to start-up's, SME’s and Mid-size organisations.


On 18 December 2013, ACER adopted its opinion on the Network Code on Forward Capacity Allocation. The Agency recognises ENTSO-E’s effort to align the Network Code to the Framework Guidelines and Regulation (EC) No 714/2009 and to involve stakeholders through a transparent process, maintaining a good level of stakeholder involvement. The Agency acknowledges the significant efforts of ENTSO-E to define the requirements and responsibilities of Transmission System Operators and other entities performing the functions within coordinated long-term capacity calculation, allocation and nomination in general. However, the Network Code submitted by ENTSO-E to the Agency on 1 October 2013 is in some aspects not in line with the Framework Guidelines and the objectives stated therein, and lacks ambition regarding the implementation horizon. ACER has requested several amendments to the Network code to ensure full alignment with the Framework Guidelines as well as consistency with other electricity network codes. In particular, the two following aspects are of concern: the deadlines set to implement terms and conditions or methodologies and the firmness regime. ACER considers that these suggestions can be addressed by ENTSO-E within a short period of time, in order for the Agency to recommend the Network Code for adoption to the European Commission.


During summer, due to the humidconditions, thunderstorms occur frequently. You might have heard that oneshould not use electronics during thunderstorms. Now, is the advice applicablefor your air conditioner or not? Read below to know the answer and otherdetails about operating your air conditioner during thunderstorms!
Should you use your Air Conditioner during thunderstorms?
The answeris no! Just like any other electrical appliance, operating your air conditionerduring a thunderstorm can cause severe damage to your unit. So, it is ideal toshut down your air conditioner when the weather indicates athunderstorm.
Dueto humidity in summer, you might want to crank the air conditioner to enjoy thecool air from your unit. Unfortunately, it is the ideal condition forthunderstorms as well. Fortunately, once the summer storms roll in, you willget some relief as the temperature and humidity drop, even if your airconditioner is switched off.
Whyshould you switch off your air conditioner?
· Lightningstrikes can damage your air conditioner: Duringthunderstorms, it is highly unlikely that lightning strikes your condenser(outdoor unit of your air conditioner). However, the probability of biggerdamage to your air conditioner comes from the power surges due to lightningstriking your home or nearby. The most vulnerable point for lightning strikingyour home is the electrical flow drop. It is the point where all the utilitylines are connected to your home’s roof, and if lightning strikes, a powersurge will occur through your house’s electrical system. The power surge due tolightning strikes may send a significant spike through your home's electricalsystem, which can cause your circuit breaker to trip. This can result in severedamage to all the appliances running during the power surge, including youroperating air conditioner. The damage caused because of this power surge is likelybeyond repair.
· Yourair conditioner may malfunction: Your home gettingstruck by lightning can lead your air conditioner to malfunction. It cancause your unit’s plug to melt. The control panel of your air conditioner isvery vulnerable because it is packed with complex electrical circuitry that issensitive to damage. Once your air conditioner’s control panel is damaged, you willrequire extensive repair or even replace the entire unit. The functioning ofyour air conditioner depends on the system’s control, and if a power surgeoccurs while it is operating, your cooling or heating system willmalfunction.
Some damages are repairable. For instance, during lightning,if the compressor or capacitor gets damaged due to a power surge, it does notrisk the functioning of your air conditioner.
Whatshould you do to prevent your air conditioner from being damaged duringthunderstorms?
Byinstalling a full-house surge protector, you can prevent your AC from beingdamaged due to a power surge. You can call for certified technicians to installit for your house. If lightning strikes, the surge protector will channel theexcess voltage directly into the ground. However, it is to be noted thatinstalling a surge protector is only an effective way to prevent damage; itdoes not guarantee to be a 100 percent preventive measure. Therefore, you needto refrain from operating your air conditioner during thunderstorms. Even ifyou have a full-house surge protector, there will still be chances of powersurge from your house’s neighborhood.
Turningoff your electrical appliances along with your HVAC system is the best way toprevent any damage during thunderstorms. Although it does not guarantee thatyour HVAC system will remain safe from a power surge, it will prevent anysevere damage to your switched-off system.
Conclusion
During summers, air conditionersare the best appliance to save us from the horrible heat and humidity. But thesummer storms can cause thunderstorms to damage your air conditioning. It isideal for you to turn off your air conditioner during thunderstorms to preventany extensive damage. If you notice your air conditioner malfunctioning after astorm, call the HVAC experts right away to diagnose any issue with your unitand fix it as soon as possible. To keep your air conditioner runningeffectively, you need to maintain it properly.
See the summary of this contenthere –
UsingAC during Thunderstorms [Infographic]


High Production Costs Weigh on the Ulexite Prices in the US 11-Nov-2022 3:00 PM Journalist: Bob Duffler
The price of Ulexite in the US has continued to rise as demand in domestic and international markets has remained robust in October 2022. Feedstock Boron prices have also pushed up, making Ulexite production even more difficult in the US. The rising use of low-carbon units is putting pressure on the mining sector in the United States.
Additionally, shipments from the US have recently decreased because of lower domestic supply due to increased freight costs and rising currency rates. Boron and Ulexite's already troubled worldwide supply chain has been put under more strain. As a result, fewer imports from the US to India have led to an increase in Ulexite pricing in the global market. Ulexite prices in the Indian market also rose as a result of limited imports, with an increment of around 7% during October 2022.
Due to the cost of packaging and processing, which has grown along with the price of natural gas, Ulexite's prices in the US increased by around 2% in October 2022. Fundamentals in demand for the product from the glass, fiber, and fertilizer industries have significantly increased the opportunities for producers in the Ulexite market. Following these benchmark events, Ulexite prices were estimated to be approximately USD 790/MT in October 2022 on a FOB Savannah basis in the US.
According to ChemAnalyst, the supply tightness could persist as demand continues to increase, primarily due to increased demand from the electric transportation, clean energy, food, and domestic security industries. This current imbalance is manifesting with increased pricing across various boron derivatives. If these supply-demand trends continue, we believe future boron contracts could reflect favorable pricing terms based on supply constraints, value in use, and inflation.


What a Difference Faith Makes… to Alcohol Use!
This FaithAction report looks at issues faith communities face with the use of alcohol. However, these problems are often hidden, which can make it difficult both for individuals and for faith groups to address them. We also know that the reach into communities and the trusted status that faith groups can have mean that they are often ideally-placed to help address sensitive issues such as problems with alcohol.
This document reports on our initial exploration of the area. We hope that it will spark a conversation about faith and alcohol that will continue, in turn highlighting the role that faith can play and creating opportunities for more people to receive the support that they need.


Journaling, or the act of writing a thoughtful reflection about your life, can transport you from vague discomfort to connectedness in a matter of minutes.
Dr. Ali Carter, host of Independence Now’s “Facing COVID Now” series, shares valuable insights on the importance and evolution of self-care for individuals with disabilities.
“I started the practice of meditation during the pandemic…it helps me be present when I am feeling anxious or overwhelmed.”


Deep neural networks have exhibited promising performance in image super-resolution (SR) by learning a nonlinear mapping function from low-resolution (LR) images to high-resolution (HR) images. However, there are two underlying limitations to existing SR methods. First, learning the mapping function from LR to HR images is typically an ill-posed problem, because there exist infinite HR images that can be downsampled to the same LR image. As a result, the space of the possible functions can be extremely large, which makes it hard to find a good solution. Second, the paired LR-HR data may be unavailable in real-world applications and the underlying degradation method is often unknown. For such a more general case, existing SR models often incur the adaptation problem and yield poor performance. To address the above issues, we propose a dual regression scheme by introducing an additional constraint on LR data to reduce the space of the possible functions. Specifically, besides the mapping from LR to HR images, we learn an additional dual regression mapping estimates the down-sampling kernel and reconstruct LR images, which forms a closed-loop to provide additional supervision. More critically, since the dual regression process does not depend on HR images, we can directly learn from LR images. In this sense, we can easily adapt SR models to real-world data, e.g., raw video frames from YouTube. Extensive experiments with paired training data and unpaired real-world data demonstrate our superiority over existing methods.


The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating worldwide. Public health systems faced severe underreporting of COVID-19 deaths and a variety of other barriers as they worked to accurately track the severity of the pandemic. During this time, many deaths both directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 were on the rise.
At the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, we estimate that roughly two out of every three deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic were not attributed to COVID-19 in official statistics in 2020 and 2021. Instead of the nearly 6 million deaths that countries and territories officially reported during this period, we estimate that over 18 million deaths were associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Excess death has been widely regarded as a more accurate measure of the true impact of COVID-19 on mortality than reported deaths. What is excess death exactly? It is a measure derived from looking at the number of people who died in previous years and comparing these trends to the number of people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is this abnormal spike in deaths during 2020 and 2021 that we count as excess deaths.
Are all these excess deaths truly deaths from COVID-19? Studies suggest that most excess deaths are uncounted deaths directly due to COVID-19—though this varies by location. These deaths may go uncounted due to changes in the ways that governments track COVID-19 deaths over time; a lack of testing in certain parts or all of a country; underreporting among groups at higher risk of death for COVID-19, such as older adults; political factors within a country or territory; and a lack of consensus among medical systems on when to assign the primary cause of death as COVID-19. Excess deaths could also be due to causes other than COVID-19, yet still indirectly related, such as deferred health care due to health systems overstressed by COVID-19; and mental health disorders that accompanied the pandemic. There is only limited understanding about how extensively these other causes may have driven up the death toll during the pandemic. Future studies may reveal additional factors that we haven't yet identified.
How Countries and Territories Compare in Terms of Excess Death
Excess deaths vary widely around the world, underscoring just how differently countries and territories have fared during the pandemic. At the regional level, South Asia had the highest number of excess deaths, estimated at 5 million. Almost 80 percent of these excess deaths occurred in India, though this number is partially due to India's large population size. The second highest region, North Africa and the Middle East, had nearly 2 million excess deaths. We found that seven countries—India, the United States, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, and Pakistan—accounted for over half of the 18 million excess deaths worldwide.
The United States—the country with the second highest excess deaths after India -- had an estimated 1.1 million excess deaths, but only officially reported 820,000 deaths as COVID-19. The missing deaths—almost 310,000—were either COVID-19 deaths that the country's death registration system missed or were caused by indirect effects of the pandemic.
Five countries and territories—Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, and Iceland—had fewer deaths than expected during the pandemic. This may be due to pandemic response policies, such as lockdowns, resulting in fewer accidents, injuries, and cases of other diseases.
In Australia, for example, we estimated 18,000 fewer excess deaths than anticipated in 2020 and 2021 combined, compared to a non-pandemic year. A similar story follows in Taiwan where we estimated 2,700 fewer deaths than anticipated over the two years. For both places, this may be due to aggressive pandemic responses that prioritized zero-COVID strategies, as well as island geographies that made it easier for the government to implement travel restrictions.
Assessing the True Severity of the Pandemic
Examining the relationship between excess deaths and reported COVID-19 deaths helps us evaluate the true severity of the pandemic. Based on our estimates of excess death, the lowest rates of reporting in the world occurred among some sub-Saharan African countries, where reported COVID-19 deaths were frequently less than 20 percent of estimated excess deaths. For example, in the Central African Republic, we believe the 101 total reported COVID-19 deaths between 2020 and 2021 severely underestimated the true magnitude of the pandemic. In fact, we estimate that only one COVID-19 death in the Central African Republic was reported for every 139 excess deaths attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, South Africa's official statistics had higher reporting, capturing approximately 30 percent of the deaths related to COVID-19. This is close to the global average and in line with countries such as Denmark and Ecuador.
Basing policies and decision-making on incomplete death counts is potentially ineffective and misleading. Timely reporting of vital registration data, even without cause-specific information, would allow for more rapid evaluation of the effects of policy change on both pandemic-related deaths as well as deaths from other causes. What's more, low detection and limited reporting of deaths related to COVID-19 masked the severity of the pandemic in many countries and territories, particularly during early stages. Future pandemic responses need to include the building of infrastructure and removal of political barriers to ensure accurate and comprehensive tracking of deaths.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The authors would like to thank Adrienne Chew for fact checking the post, and Professor Haidong Wang, Annie Chan, and Catherine Bisignano for providing feedback. EDITOR'S NOTE: The authors are employed by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which produced the COVID-19 estimates described in this article. IHME collaborates with the Council on Foreign Relations on Think Global Health. All statements and views expressed in this article are solely those of the individual authors and are not necessarily shared by their institution.


Upgrade Your Attic Insulation and Save Up To $5,000 in Rebates For a Limited-Time Only! Ontario only, FREE Information.
Did you know that insufficient attic insulation can result in your home losing 25% of its warmth?
That’s a potential 25% increase on your utility bill to compensate for the escaped heat. Without a minimum thickness of R50, your attic can be the top suspect in your home’s uncomfortable temperatures. You shouldn’t have to pay for the heat you’re not using. We can assess your current attic insulation and determine an affordable course of action.


Everyone is advised to make a Will but over half of the adult population do not do so. Where there is no Will, the person’s estate falls subject to the intestacy rules which are statutory rules which govern how your possessions are divided. Many people fail to realise that, without a will, a surviving spouse or civil partner will not necessarily inherit all their assets.
With effect from 6 February 2020, the Lord Chancellor has increased the ‘fixed sum statutory legacy’ that a spouse or civil partner will receive from £250,000 to £270,000 – not a huge increase after 5 years of no change when viewed in the context of inflation and rising house prices. To understand why this should matter to you, this complex area of law is explained in some more detail below.
The division of your estate under intestacy rules depends on which relatives survive you. If a husband dies without a will leaving a wife and two children, the wife will receive all his personal belongings plus the statutory legacy up to the new limit of £270,000, with any remaining balance passing as to one half to the wife. The children will receive the remaining half of the balance in equal shares. In the scenario above, if the total amount is less than the statutory legacy sum, the wife will inherit everything.
Where someone dies without a Will and leaves a spouse or civil partner but no children or other descendants, the whole estate will pass to the spouse.
At what is already a traumatic time, you can avoid subjecting your nearest and dearest to the additional trauma of struggling with intestacy rules. With professional guidance, making a Will is not complex and you, not the government, can direct how your assets should be divided.


AQR Sustainable Long-Short Equity Carbon Aware Fund
This Fund invests long and short across global equity markets, integrating certain Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) considerations into its security selection and portfolio construction processes and seeking to hedge climate risks.
All Mutual Funds Alternatives
As a pioneer in alternative investing, AQR has a long track record of managing the complexities of these types of strategies. By investing long and short, and balancing exposure to factors and asset classes, our alternative strategies are built to seek returns in both up and down markets. We offer both absolute return strategies, which target zero exposure to traditional markets, either at all times, or on average, and total return strategies, which maintain some exposure to traditional markets.
Single Strategy Equities
For more than two decades, our overall goal has been to build compelling and repeatable investments that are highly diversified across signals and regions, and within a risk-managed framework. We apply this systematic approach across our strategies, catering to the widespread investment needs of our clients.
Large Cap Global/International Emerging Markets Multi-Asset
Leveraging the full research and investment capabilities of AQR, these strategies offer a strategic blend of asset classes such as equities, fixed income, currency, and commodities—combined to create broadly diversified portfolios seeking maximum returns within a risk-managed framework.
Other Products
In addition to mutual funds, AQR strategies are available through a variety of investment vehicles such as model portfolios, separately managed accounts, limited partnerships, collective investment trusts and sub-advised portfolios. We also offer tax-aware implementations of some of our strategies.


Parachute provides expert consultation for business continuity, workplace safety, ergonomics, & other critical work areas.
Parachute provides business continuity planning for small & large companies in any industry. We have a comprehensive Workplace/School Safety Program, led by our law enforcement team. We have proprietary, custom tools & plans to evaluate your current work environment & assist you in preparing for potential issues:
The Parachute Safety team is your company safety department. Our experienced professionals will handle these and other company needs:
Good ergonomic working conditions involve more than the right technicalities; successful companies are characterized by clear health and safety procedures and a commitment to safe, sustainable working conditions. Professional evaluation of worksite tasks and consultation with company leaders may serve as an extension of these procedures. Additionally, the development of company ErgoScouts® may allow for ongoing monitoring and regulation and a continuation of safe work practices.
Parachute Consulting has robust ergonomic offerings and the experienced staff to implement them. Our team includes Ergonomists, degreed Exercise Physiologists, certified/licensed Medics, licensed Athletic Trainers, certified Pilates Instructors and movement experts, registered/licensed Dietitians, licensed Massage Therapists, and board-certified Medical Directors (Occupational Medicine/Master of Public Health; Emergency Medicine). And, critically, we understand the importance of ergonomic issues and the need to reach people with this safety message in a way that resonates –
This concept is a hallmark of Parachute Consulting training. it only works if you can get people to do it.


India’s federal structure means sub-national authorities are expected to play a key role in actively adopting and implementing climate-friendly policies. India has been a first-mover in preparing State Action Plans on Climate Change. States are responsible for implementing the policies and programmes framed by the central government. Also, in light of the wide socio-economic and climate-geographic variations in India, the active involvement of states increases manifold. Cities and communities too are now becoming principal actors on climate action.
The progress of sub-national actions can significantly contribute to meeting India’s national and global climate targets. The webinar looks at opportunities to expand climate action at the state, union territory and gram panchayat levels. Date: 28th April 2021 Time: 7.30 pm


FBB launches the UK's first in-work psychotherapy development programme aiming to create a generation of counsellors: Apply now!
We're delighted to launch the UK's first in-work psychotherapy development programme aiming to create a generation of counsellors who combine relevant lived experience with the highest levels of professional qualifications.
Through our Therapeutic Practitioners programme, we will be training a new generation of culturally competent practitioners to gain the post-graduate qualifications they need to deliver transformational, early intervention mental health support to vulnerable adolescents at secondary schools across the UK.
Access to therapeutic training is prohibitively expensive for people from working class backgrounds. This has created an enormous class and ethnic gap between the young people most in need of expert mental health support and the counsellors and psychotherapists who are available to support them. This demographic void has dramatic real world impacts with, for example, young black males being the least likely to access support for mental health conditions, despite being overrepresented in school exclusion figures.
Our Therapeutic Practitioner programme aims to change this through providing talented and passionate individuals from working class and minority ethnic backgrounds with the opportunity to train as they work. Alongside completing their therapeutic qualifications with the Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) and the University of East London (UEL), the successful applicants will also be provided with personal therapy, weekly group reflective practice, and fortnightly clinical supervision across the three year programme. Additionally, successful applicants will be joining a supportive network of individuals with similar experiences to them and a shared passion for creating transformational relationships with adolescents who are at risk of exclusion.
We know that early access to high quality counselling is vital to supporting young people to recover from trauma. This development programme is all about ensuring our most vulnerable adolescents have people in their lives with both the expertise and the lived experience to provide them with the therapeutic support they need at the earliest possible opportunity.


Migranot supports healthy blood flow to the brain and healthy neurological function minimizing the frequency and severity of neurological discomfort triggered by bright lights and stress that occasionally occurs in healthy individuals. This proprietary blend consists of Chuan xiong root (Ligusticum wallichii), Feverfew herb (Tanacetum parthenium), Butterbur root (Petasites officinalis), Thunder god vine (Tripterygium wilfordii), Myrrh gum (Commiphora myrrha), Frankincense (Boswellia carteri).
Tinctures are alcohol-based preparations macerated in 50% distilled cane sugar alcohol at a 1:2 ratio.
Compared to other methods, alcohol helps extract nearly all active constituents from a herb yielding stronger tinctures that require a lower dose to attain beneficial effects.
Alcohol eliminates the growth of bacteria and mold while preserving the valuable constituents resulting in a much longer shelf life.
20 drops in water twice daily.
None
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.


New HIV Diagnoses Quadruple With Electronic Testing Prompt in Bronx Hospitals IDWeek 2016, October 26-30, 2016, New Orleans   Mark Mascolini   New HIV diagnoses jumped 4.5-fold from 8.2 to 37 per 100,000 people when a Bronx, New York hospital system added an electronic medical record (EMR) prompt to test admitted patients for HIV [1]. Proportions of patients tested rose from under 10% to over 20% after EMR prompting began.   The CDC recommends opt-out HIV testing for 13- to 64-year-olds at all medical encounters--including hospital admissions--at least once as part of regular healthcare [2]. Many hospitals have no systematic way to apply this advice to inpatients. In the Bronx, New York, an area with a 2% HIV prevalence, the Montefiore system instituted an automated EMR prompt signaling health workers to test inpatients with no prior HIV test or to retest those with high-risk diagnoses. The prompt automatically adds HIV testing to the routine testing list.   A Montefiore team assessed the impact of the HIV-testing prompt by comparing testing rates before and after the EMR system became active. Montefiore is the largest health system in the Bronx, with three adult hospitals that admit 80,000 people yearly. This analysis focused on 21- to 64-year-olds admitted before or after EMR prompting began. The study excluded people tested for HIV in the emergency department or during obstetric admissions.   Principal study outcomes were (1) the proportion of hospital admissions with an HIV test performed and (2) the rate of new HIV diagnoses made by screening. The investigators used generalized linear mixed models to explore (1) the association between study phase (before or during EMR prompting) and whether an HIV test was done, and (2) the association between study phase and new HIV diagnoses made by screening.   The analysis involved 55,553 admissions from September 2013 through March 2015, including 36,610 admissions in 377 days before EMR prompting and 18,943 in 199 days during EMR prompting. In both study phases, 55% of admissions involved women, about 90% of admitted patients were black or Hispanic, 70% had public insurance, median age stood at 51 years, and median hospital stay measured 3 days. During both study phases, half of patients had no prior HIV test.   Overall HIV testing rate increased significantly from before EMR prompting (3486 of 36,610 admissions, 9.5%) to the prompting phase 4122 of 18,943 admissions (21.8%) (P < 0.0001). The improvement held true for people with no prior HIV test (from 11% to 32%) and for people with a prior HIV-negative test (from 9% to 13%) (P < 0.0001 for both).   Admission after EMR prompting began independently raised the odds of increased HIV testing for all admissions (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.62 to 2.96), for admissions of people without a prior HIV test (aOR 4.03, 95% CI 3.70 to 4.40), and for admissions of patients with a prior negative HIV test (aOR 1.52, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.68) (P < 0.0001 for all).   New HIV diagnoses rose from 8.2 per 100,000 admissions before prompting began to 37.0 per 100,000 admissions during prompting to yield a 4.5 times higher rate with prompting (OR 4.51, 95% CI 1.17 to 17.45, P = 0.03).   The Montefiore researchers concluded that an EMR prompt to test hospitalized patients for HIV resulted in a big increase in HIV testing and an increase in HIV diagnoses made by screening. They cautioned that their findings may not apply to health systems located in areas with lower HIV prevalence, with less robust EMRs, with no access to dedicated counselors, and with different HIV testing policies.   With those caveats in mind, the investigators proposed that "leveraging the EMR to support expanded HIV testing strategies for hospitalized patients can impact key HIV prevention outcomes including decreasing missed opportunities for diagnosis."   References   1. Felsen U, Cunningham CO, Heo M, et al. An expanded HIV testing strategy leveraging the electronic medical record uncovers undiagnosed infection among hospitalized patients. IDWeek 2016, October 26-30, 2016, New Orleans. Abstract 2381.   2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Revised recommendations for HIV testing of adults, adolescents, and pregnant women in health-care settings. MMWR. September 22, 2006 / 55(RR14);1-17. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5514a1.htm


Navigating Louisiana's Complex Sales Tax Structure
Louisiana historically has been known for having one of the most complex sales tax structures in the country, presenting numerous challenges for companies conducting business in the state. Inconsistencies between local and state-level tax collectors can often lead to costly audits and massive headaches for businesses.
What makes Louisiana’s sales tax structure complicated? Louisiana is one of three states without a single centralized sales tax collecting agency. Sales taxes are collected both at the state level and local levels, on a parish-by-parish or even municipality-by-municipality basis. Depending on the local jurisdiction, responsibility for collection of local sales and use taxes may fall to local sheriffs, police juries, school boards, or specifically empowered sales tax departments of local government. Louisiana’s convoluted sales tax legislation often requires background understanding in non-common law concepts absent in other state legal systems. Louisiana is the only U.S. state under a civil law jurisdiction. For historical reasons, Louisiana's sales tax statutes contain a myriad of "exemptions" and "exclusions" from taxation that often do not apply uniformly at the state and local levels. The definitional section of the state sales tax statute, La. R.S. 47:301, currently runs to approximately fifty pages single-spaced. Who does this unique scenario affect most and why? The current system is often too complex and costly for companies, particularly those who collect and remit sales taxes across multiple parishes, to navigate on their own. Companies operating across multiple parishes often encounter administrative issues remitting sales taxes to the correct jurisdiction, additional legal costs resolving identical sales tax disputes with multiple collectors who may take different positions from one another, and a lack of clarity on sales tax exemptions and exclusions (which do not apply uniformly across all of the local taxing jurisdictions within the state). What efforts have been made to streamline the system? An overwhelming majority of lawmakers from both parties passed legislation this past summer that would have streamlined Louisiana sales and use tax collection upon voter approval of a constitutional amendment authorizing the adoption of a centralized sales tax system. The proposed changes would have introduced a new eight-member commission with authority over all sales and use taxes, streamlined electronic filing and collection at both the state and local levels, and drastically simplified the sales tax collecting process to make Louisiana a more business-friendly state. Unfortunately, Louisiana voters rejected the authorizing constitutional amendment in a low-turnout election ballot on November 13th, presumably based on vocal opposition from local governments skeptical that they would receive their correct share of taxes collected by a state-level agency. The rejection of the amendment will leave companies continuing to battle Louisiana's existing complex sales tax structure for the foreseeable future.
For the time being, businesses with operations in Louisiana that take proper steps to familiarize themselves with the sales tax structure may be able to avoid further complications.


What is domain?
Specific to the internet, the term domain can refer to how the internet is structured, and domain also refers to how an organization's network resources are organized. In general, a domain is an area of control or a sphere of knowledge.
What is an internet domain?
An internet domain is an administrative structure for organizing, delivering and accessing services on the internet. The terms "domain" and "domain name" are often used interchangeably (in context of the internet) because the domain structure is associated with how domains are named.
Internet domains are set up in accordance with the Domain Name Service (DNS), an application layer protocol and service used on networks to translate host names to their associated IP addresses. DNS is an essential component of the internet. It is implemented as a decentralized, hierarchical system that's distributed globally across a conglomeration of DNS servers. The service acts as a giant directory for resolving domain names to IP addresses and IP addresses to domain names, irrespective of where the domains are located.
The DNS system allows internet users to access content by remembering a name rather than an IP address. For example, DNS makes it possible for users to type techtarget.com in a browser to connect to the TechTarget website, without knowing the associated IP address.
Internet domains are identified by unique IP addresses. These addresses make it possible for a device connected to the internet to communicate directly with a specific domain. DNS simplifies communications using a hierarchical naming structure.
At the top of this hierarchy is the Root domain, which serves as the parent node for all internet domains. The root domain contains multiple top-level domains (TLDs) that sit directly beneath it in the DNS hierarchy. TLDs identify geographic or purpose commonality, such as a nation or commercial enterprise. For example, TLDs include .com, .net, .org, .gov and several other domains, including country codes.
Individual domains -- such as techtarget.com, usda.gov or redcross.org -- sit directly beneath the TLDs. Each second-level domain is associated with a specific TLD, as indicated by the final component of the domain name. For example, techtarget.com is located within the .com TLD, usda.gov is part of the .gov TLD, and redcross.org is within the .org TLD. A second-tier domain can also include subdomains, as in searchstorage.techtarget.com or searchdatabackup.techtarget.com, which are part of the second level techtarget.com domain.
What is a network domain?
The term domain is also used in other types of networks to describe the logical organization of connected physical network resources and users. This type of domain provides a structure for managing network resources and users under a single administrative umbrella. A network domain typically includes servers, desktops, printers and other devices. It also provides a mechanism for authorizing and authenticating users for network access. Administrators can control which resources a user can access and the user's level of access.
A network domain makes it possible to organize network resources and users based on the needs of the organization and the types of resources connected to the network. Administrators can apply policies to network resources at a granular level. A user logs in to the domain to access the approved resources, regardless of where the resources are located on the network. The domain also enables users on the network to communicate and collaborate.
A domain can include resources and users on a local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN). The platform that manages the domain, such as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), commonly includes features to help client computers locate the nearest resources and optimize processes such as replicating directory data between distributed servers.
A common network domain used today is Active Directory designed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. Active Directory stores information about objects and users on the network and provides a logical, hierarchical view of the directory information, making it easy for administrators and users to navigate the domain and find resources. It also offers integrated security, including login authentication and access control to directory objects.
The Active Directory domain typically includes one or more domain controllers for managing resources and users across the network. A domain controller is a server that does the domain's heavy lifting. It maintains details about network resources, stores user account information and processes authentication requests for access to network resources. It also handles operations such as replicating directory data with other domain controllers. Although domain controllers are mostly used in Active Directory domains, they are also used in some non-Windows environments.
What is domain knowledge?
The term "domain knowledge" is used to describe a sphere of knowledge in a specific field or industry. Commonly used in the technology industry, this term refers to an individual's capabilities beyond his or her basic skill set. For example, someone applying for a project management position on a development team might be expected to have domain knowledge about DevOps development methodologies, tools and environments.
Domain knowledge in this sense is a subjective concept whose meaning depends more on circumstances than a dictionary definition. For example, a software engineer's domain knowledge might refer to knowledge about an application's operating environment or about the way end users interact with the application.


A new ICTT report assesses the real-world nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions behavior of heavy-duty diesel vehicles in the United States measured using portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). This assessment is based on 160 PEMS tests from engines certified to 0.2 grams per brake horsepower-hour (g/bhp-hr) of NOx.
Paediatric asthma incidence is associated with exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP), but the TRAP-attributable burden remains poorly quantified. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a major component and common proxy of TRAP. In a new study, researchers estimated the annual global number of new asthma cases attributable to NO2 exposure at a resolution sufficient to resolve …


No, a well-maintained refuge chamber or safe haven should not let gases inside.
A refuge shelter has two critical systems that work together to support an airtight environment: positive pressure and a robust, sealed structure.
Positive Pressure for Sealed Chemical Shelters and Refuge Chambers
Positive pressure works by maintaining a higher pressure within the shelter compared to the external environment. This difference means that air can leave the room, through the one-way check valves, without circulating back in.
There are a few mechanisms, each of which can help maintain positive pressure within a sealed MineARC Refuge Chamber:
Compressed Air Management System Positive Pressure Maintenance System Automated Oxygen Delivery System Leak Testing a Shelter
Integrity testing can identify leaks within a room before converting the area into a Shelter-in-Place (SIP).
Minimum air flow changes each hour (ACH) must be maintained to sustain the desired environment, depending on the room’s size and purpose. After reaching the required ACH or tightness, a positive-pressure management system must be sized for the expected shelter duration.
Breathable air from compressed air cylinders or an air line venting directly into the refuge forms a positive internal pressure. Determining the amount of air required to reach the necessary level of positive pressure involves measuring the area’s internal volume and the relationship between the internal and external atmospheric conditions.
How to Determine Adequate Positive Pressure
When determining adequate positive pressure within a space, several structural factors need to be considered, including:
Shelter volume HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) Door and window tightness Existing openings such as vents and elevator shafts Indoor and outdoor temperature Wind speed and building orientation The external screening of the structure Structure Design for Airtight Safe Havens and Refuge Chambers
Portable or fixed refuge chambers are built from reinforced structures, either solid steel frames or natural rock strata.
Door seal:Every time the door is opened and closed, the seal will expand and compress. The seal is further mechanically compressed when the door handles are engaged, ensuring a seal under both positive and negative pressure. Check valves:One-way valves allow air to escape to avoid over pressurisation. These openings re-close automatically when the internal pressure is equal to or lower than the external pressure to maintain a sealed air environment.
Potential leakage points are continually serviced to ensure they remain effective.
Additionally, safe havens and shelter-in-place can be constructed within existing or new buildings. However, identified locations must undergo a review of the existing structure, building envelop, and the indoor atmosphere to determine its suitability to protect personnel during a hazard.
How to Check a Shelter is Airtight with a Vacuum Test
Any leak points must remain airtight. A field vacuum test confirms if these components are effectively maintaining an airtight internal environment.
A vacuum test is completed during refuge chamber manufacture. It should also be performed as part of every four monthly chamber service and regular inspections.


Abstract
To find key genes essential for salt tolerance in the mangrove plant, Bruguiera sexangula, functional screening was performed using Escherichia coli as the host organism. A transformant expressing a cytosolic chaperonin-containing TCP-1α (CCTα) homologue displayed enhanced salt tolerance. Analysis in E. coli of the functional region revealed that a sequence of only 218 amino acids, containing the apical domain, is necessary for osmotolerance. Furthermore, this domain shows chaperone activity in vitro. Therefore, CCTα facilitates the folding of proteins without ATP or the cage-like structure, and may play an important role in stress tolerance, at least in B. sexangula.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes Physiology Plant Science Cell Biology


Abstract Ammonia and its amine-containing derivatives are widely found in natural decomposition byproducts. Here, we conducted biased chemoreceptor screening to investigate the mechanisms by which different concentrations of ammonium salt, urea, and putrescine in rotten fruits affect feeding and oviposition behavior. We identified three ionotropic receptors, including the two broadly required IR25a and IR76b receptors, as well as the narrowly tuned IR51b receptor. These three IRs were fundamental in eliciting avoidance against nitrogenous waste products, which is mediated by bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs). The aversion of nitrogenous wastes was evaluated by the cellular requirement by expressing Kir2.1 and behavioral recoveries of the mutants in bitter-sensing GRNs. Furthermore, by conducting electrophysiology assays, we confirmed that ammonia compounds are aversive in taste as they directly activated bitter-sensing GRNs. Therefore, our findings provide insights into the ecological roles of IRs as a means to detect and avoid toxic nitrogenous waste products in nature.


As part of its efforts to continue regularly updating staff across Vallis on the latest developments on the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain, we will publishing a series of one page bulletins focusing on a different topic each week sharing relevant statistics, updates and even including accounts from our in-country staff about their experience on the ground. These will be sent as mini weekly newsletters and full reports will also be added onto our COVID-19 webpage and Research page.
Our first bulletin introduces the topic of COVID-19 and its impact on the supply chain. It considers first the impact on the import and export of medical and pharmaceutical goods as well as the availability of primary and intermediate goods.
If you would like to contribute and or feedback at any point, please send your emails directly to charlie.wilson@vallis-group.com.


When it comes to a vehicular crash, CED engineers conduct an in-depth analysis to identify all the contributing factors in the collision. Engineers in CED’s
Case Studies
Virtual Crash software is a powerful tool to create accident simulations and animations. Our team of expert engineers often use this software for vehicle crashes
A natural accumulation is any natural environmental accumulation of rain, snow, sleet, or hail that accumulates without any actions by the property owner. An unnatural


Self Sabotaging Behaviours
Or when we mess things up for ourselves.
It is indescribably painful and frustrating when those we love engage in self sabotaging behaviours. These might include misuse of drugs and alcohol - self medicating, failure to keep ourselves safe, engaging in high risk, self harmful behaviours.
Self sabotage is when we, usually subconsciously, mess things up for ourselves.
Why would we do that?!
How we value ourselves, what we believe we deserve, how we see ourselves; all are shaped during our very early formative years. Yes, each of us is capable of change but it certainly requires more effort the more established are our negative views of ourselves, our expectations and our self worth.
What messages did we receive in early childhood? Did we feel safe? Were we secure in the unconditional love of our parents?
If we, subconsciously or otherwise, do not believe ourselves to be of value, of significance and deserving of good things we will struggle to accept good things into our lives. We will reject those who value us. We will reject positive opportunities. They do not fit our internal model. This is not who we are.
When our negative view of ourselves and our place in the world is challenged we will feel unsafe. If we are extremely fortunate we will struggle to understand a desire to embrace the negative. However, if negativity has been our earliest blue print, negativity feels safe and familiar and is what we deserve. It is all we are worth.
So, when we next encounter a young person at risk of exclusion from school or at risk of placement disruption. Are they simply making 'poor choices'? In order to make choices we have to know what the choices are.
Never try to put a bow on it. Tell your young person, 'I believe in you.' 'You're worth more than this.' You deserve better than this.''It's not your fault'. They won't believe you. It's not personal. Still tell them. Keep telling them.


This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Japan Country Manager Yun-Tzu Lin Japan Aims to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 46% Over 2013 Levels by 2030
Japan’s most current level of GHG emissions is approximately 1.213 billion tons in 2019, a 2.9% decrease compared to 1.247 billion tons in 2018. Its 2019 GHG emissions are at the lowest level since 1990, and a 14% decrease compared to 1.410 billion tons in the base year of 2013. This data is calculated by the Ministry of Environment (“温室…” 2021).
Image 1. 2019 GHG Emissions. Ret. 6/3/2021
In October 2020, Japan’s Prime Minister Suga declared Japan’s realization of a carbon-neutral, decarbonized society by 2050. In April 2021, Suga followed up this pledge with an announcement of Japan’s aim to reduce GHG emissions 46% by 2030 compared with fiscal 2013 levels, a significant increase from its previous commitment for a 26% cut.
The current 2030 Strategic Energy Plan, set in 2018, still plans for 22-24% of Japan’s energy to come from renewables, 20-22% from nuclear power and 56% from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas. Energy experts are discussing revisions to the plan for 2030 and 2050. It is expected that the 2050 emissions-free target will prompt drastic changes and likely more nuclear plant restarts.
The Japanese government has declared its focus to systematically promote existing technologies and the development and deployment of key new technologies such as next-generation solar batteries and carbon recycling. In recognition of the limitations of “energy conservation, electrification, power source decarbonization, and hydrogen fuel initiatives,” in achieving a fossil-free society, Japan plans to develop negative emission technologies to “capture and store carbon dioxide” as a critical element of its approach (“Japan’s Roadmap…” 2020).
These latest pledges are an improvement upon Japan’s most recent NDC pledge under the Paris Agreement that included an emissions reduction target of 26% below 2013 levels in 2030.
温室効果ガス排出・吸収量等の算定と報告～温室効果ガスインベントリ等関連情報～. (2021).
Retrieved 3 June 2021, from https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/ghg-mrv/emissions/
Japan’s Roadmap to “Beyond-Zero” Carbon. (2021). Retrieved 3 June 2021, from


Not all is gloomy, however. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is underway, giving us hope that we may turn the corner soon, with a more robust economic outlook in the second half of 2021. However, the recovery is still likely to remain uneven in the first half of the year as the services economy faces headwinds while distancing restrictions are in place.
The latest commentary from Cetera Investment Management highlights the areas of the economy poised to benefit most during the post-vaccine recovery, and outlines the potential setbacks that lay ahead. It may feel gloomy during these gray winter days, but there are reasons to be optimistic for the next phase of the recovery.
As always, please reach out to the office if you have any questions.


Annual Report 2020
Amidst the significant challenges of Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020)—from the global COVID-19 pandemic to rising authoritarianism to environmental degradation—Global Fund for Women’s model of feminist philanthropy continues to shift power and resources to communities most impacted by inequality and injustice.
The same principles that guide our work—forging long-term relationships grounded in trust, centering the needs of those who most experience marginalization, supporting underfunded or unregistered groups, and providing flexible, multi-year grants that allow partners to freely direct funding—means that we were ready to respond quickly in moments of crisis.
We were made for these times. Explore the FY2020 Annual Report here.


How does shared parenting work?
Parents frequently use the term “custody” despite the fact that it is not now accepted by legal authorities. Lawyers, judges, and mediators increasingly use the term “care” instead of “custody,” resulting in terminology such as “shared care” to describe circumstances that were before referred to as “shared custody.” However, what does it mean? There are diverse perspectives on what shared care entails and how it should be structured.
Traditionally, child arrangements agreements or court decisions centred on the notion that one parent had custody, indicating that they are the primary caretaker and the kid(ren) primarily reside with that parent. Then, the other parent would get “visitation,” which would allow them to see their children on set days and hours.
Following separation, it is generally accepted that it is in the best interests of children to spend time with both parents. This is possible because shared care provides the opportunity for children to be raised with the love and care of both parents. Children might anticipate spending meaningful time with each parent under a shared care arrangement. In shared care arrangements, children not only spend a certain amount of time with each parent, but are also nurtured and cared for by both parents. This alters the traditional conceptions of custody in terms of their practicality.
https://ukfamilymediationservice.co.uk/who-pays/ Mediators frequently ask parents what they hope to accomplish during mediation. We frequently hear the response that they desire “50/50 touch.” Shared care does not mean 50/50; in reality, courts … Read the rest >>>


Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a "July Decree" that outlines Russia's national development goals up to 2030 following the referendum approval of the constitutional amendments that could allow him to remain in office until 2036.
As reported by
bne IntelliNews, the Kremlin has just secured Putin's possible re-election for two six-year terms in 2024, but he risks running up to his re-election without having fulfilled the previous economic platform due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
The deadlines for National Projects spending spree, prepared shortly after Putin's re-election in 2018 and a reworking of his previous economic platform of the May Decrees, are now being pushed from 2024 to 2030.
The newly signed July Decree is replacing the previous platform, but while the National Project was a clear roadmap of state-driven investment across 12 major areas, the new national development goals are much more vague.
They outline five development goals: 1) maintaining the population, its health and wellbeing; 2) creating possibilities for self-fulfilment and development of talents; 3) comfortable and safe living environment; 4) effective labour and successful entrepreneurship; 5) digital transformation.
One of the previous goals, to make Russia one of the five largest global economies, has been removed. The new decree also omits clear targets on labour productivity but maintains the goal of halving poverty levels from the current 12.3%.
The government will now have to adjust the National Projects platform to the new decree by October 30 and come up with a consolidated 2030 economic development plan.
Analysts surveyed by RBC business daily note that previously National Projects were set to be completed by 2024, but two years into the investment programme in 2020, even before COVID-19, the implementation of the projects was strongly lagging behind.
The Kremlin is thus seen as being helped by the pandemic, with a timely excuse for rolling the National Platform back and proposing a new, less ambitious economic development plan.
As reported by
bne IntelliNews, the National Recovery Plan adopted by the government against the COVID-19 crisis (partially overlapping with National Projects) sees spending of RUB8.7 trillion ($123bn) in two years. The federal government could run a budget of over 5% this year, and a recession of 4.5-6.5% is expected.
Previous reports suggested that Mishustin's government and swift implementation of the National Projects was Kremlin's bet on sparking an upturn in the economy and boosting living standards in time for the authorities to claim credit at the upcoming State Duma and regional elections.
The upset of these plans coincides with a notable upsurge in arrests and repressions that are seen as politically motivated, with some of the largest protests in recent years already erupting in Russian regions.


Personality disorder: Challenges in service development in the light of the new NICE guidelines Garrett C., Lee T., Blackburn S., Priestly L., Bhui K.
Aims and method: Using the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on borderline personality disorder as a framework, we describe the profile of the first 100 individuals referred to a personality disorder service in London, captured through the use of record review and case study. Results: The referral population ethnic profile does not match the wider population of the borough; a third of the borough is Bangladeshi, but only 9% of those referred to the service are. Of those diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and on psychotropic medications, only one person had a clear current indication based on NICE guidelines. Of the 100 individuals who were referred to the service, a quarter were accepted to the programme; a third either did not want to proceed with the assessment or were unprepared for an intensive programme. Clinical implications: The under-representation of Black and minority ethnic individuals in referrals in the peresonality disorder service needs to be actively addressed. Interventions are required to support psychiatrists in reviewing their prescribing practice regarding individuals with borderline personality disorder. Access to the service needs to be improved. Declaration of interest: None.


Whether you’re cheering for a new year, a sports team, or a birthday, it feels good. Could there be lasting benefits?
Such benefits were reported by Nick Hornby in his book,
Fever Pitch. He explains that his seven-year depression suddenly lifted after cheering the victory of his favorite team. This took him by surprise, and he was even embarrassed by it. He couldn’t believe his emotions could depend on something so banal, yet his gloom coincided precisely with Arsenal’s seven-year losing streak.


Abstract
Lake Fryxell, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica contains a constantly cold water column and perennial ice-cover. Although carbon and sulfur cycling in this amictic lake have been studied previously, a paired investigation of 16S rRNA gene based microbial diversity and geochemistry of Lake Fryxell is lacking. Here, we used a combination of radiotracer-based rate measurements, geochemical measurements, and molecular microbial community analysis to investigate the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) and associated processes in Lake Fryxell. The results show that while AOM and sulfate reduction appear coupled in the upper regions of the anoxic water column, in deep anoxic waters, where AOM rates are highest, sulfate is unlikely to be the electron acceptor for AOM. Despite significant rates of AOM in these waters, no putative AOM-associated Archaea or Bacteria were observed. Due to a lack of documented AOM electron acceptors and putative ANMEs, we suggest novel modes of AOM dominate in this extreme environment. First, the notable abundance of the bacterial genus Dehalococcoides suggests that reductive dehalogenation could fuel AOM. Further, taxa of the candidate phylum OP9, the Atribacteria, and the Bathyarchaeota (formerly known as the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotal Group) both commonly observed at cold methane-seeps globally, may mediate AOM, possibly using humic acids as electron shuttles, in Lake Fryxell.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes Oceanography Aquatic Science


This paper explores subtle strategies that megaproject teams develop in practice to manage stakeholders external to the project team. A governmentality approach is used to account for these strategies. A metro rail megaproject in India provides the case for the study. The strategies were identified through a content analysis of 640 project and non-project based Tweets posted by the metro rail organization. We augmented this dataset with the community’s response through social media, as well as through semi-structured interviews that captured the project teams’ responses. The findings indicate that the megaproject used various strategies: promoting the organization, giving progress updates, appealing to the community, as well as targeting of specific sections of the population. The effect of these attempts at governmentality through branding were observed in community discourses on social media platforms that echoed the strategic discourses projected by the megaproject while interviews enabled us to access the project team’s responses. For the project community, the effects included a positive brand image, creating community brand advocates and building support for the project during contentious episodes. For the project team, the effects included job attraction, enhanced job perception as well as the creation of project team brand advocates. The relation between the governmentality instruments and their corresponding effects are theorized in six propositions.